Planning appeals

This guide deals with appeals to do with planning applications.

Only the person who made the application for planning permission can appeal.

Appeals should be made to the Planning Inspectorate.

Appeals are considered by a planning inspector, appointed by the Secretary of State in England or, in Wales, by the National Assembly.

Most are handled in writing. Some are decided by a hearing before an Inspector. A few are decided after a public inquiry.

The deadline for submitting an appeal is now 6 months from the date of the application decision letter (or in the case of non-determination, 6 months from the date the decision should have been made).

The 6 month period applies to all planning (section 78), listed building and conservation area consent (section 20) appeals. 

The change to the appeal period affects:

• local planning authority decisions made on or after 14 January 2005 and
• decisions in the pipeline on 14 January 2005 – i.e. where the previous appeal period of 3 months had not elapsed.  This means that the six month period to appeal will apply to all decisions made by local planning authorities on or after 14 October 2004.

Note: It will not apply retrospectively to decisions where the appeal period had elapsed by 14 January 2005.